Greater New Orleans

New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard Eric Gordon (10) drives to the goal by New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) at the Smoothie King Center on Wednesday, February 19, 2014. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)

Quick observations from the New Orleans Pelicans 98-91 loss Wednesday night against the New York Knicks.

1. Can't stop Melo

The Pelicans tried plenty of different defenders in an attempt to slow down
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony Wednesday night.

Al-Farouq Aminu failed
miserably. Luke Babbitt was out-classed. Anthony Davis took a rotation or two
and managed a nice rejection of a fourth-quarter Anthony attempt.

But Anthony,
who set an All-Star record here Sunday night with eight made 3-pointers, led
all scorers with 42 points, including 13 consecutive Knicks points in the fourth quarter, the last two with 40.4 seconds to go in the game that gave New York a 96-91 lead.

2. Rivers breaks
ankles

Not his own, but he made Knicks' guard Iman Schumpert look bad on
the first possession of the second quarter, putting a move on Shumpert that saw
Shumpert fall backward.

Later in the
game, Rivers put on a nice spin move on Tim Hardaway Jr. that resulted in a
layup.

It was one of Rivers' more steady games. He was 6 of 10 from the field
with 14 points.

3. Still can't defend

But Knicks guard J.R. Smith can score the basketball. Smith's inability to buy
into Byron Scott's defensive mentality when he was a young player with the
Hornets sent Smith on his way out of New Orleans.

But there never has been any
question about his shooting. Smith was 7 of 13 Wednesday night against the
Pelicans and finished with 19 off the bench for New York.